Dr. Steven DeKosky: CTE History, Questions and Future Directions, Part 1

Dr. Steven DeKosky is professor of Alzheimer’s research at the University of Florida College of Medicine and Deputy Director of the McKnight Brain Institute at that institution. He also is a professor of neurology and neuroscience there. Previously, he served as vice president and dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine and was chairperson of the department of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh.

Part 1

Dr. DeKosky described how CTE has a fascinating history, There still are questions about it. Some questions are old while some are new, but they all are interesting with respect to injury to the brain and how you try to repair it. Future directions also will be covered because the data arrive quickly. Mild traumatic brain injury usually means at least being knocked unconscious. It is not clear whether there is short-term pathology that lasts. Recovery usually is good. It is not clear exactly how much of an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease there is with a single severe TBI while more is being learned about the long-term effects. Only recently has CTE been defined clearly. Boxing is where CTE came from initially. He indicated that football helmets first were used at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1894 because one player needed protection against experiencing another head injury. He mentioned that the NCAA owes its origins to efforts to reduce brutal injuries sustained by football players. President Theodore Roosevelt led governmental efforts to prevent such injuries. Several examples were provided of developments that occurred over the decades to obtain a greater understanding of the prevention and treatment of brain damage. Apart from head injuries in sports, an uptick in interest in such uncommon disorders resulted from modern day wars in the middle east involving blast injuries from IEDs and the discovery that playing football and other sports led to many injuries viewed as being more common.